WSS 3.0 sp2 is totally free if have purchased at a minimum Windows Server 2003. In Sharepoint’s original main purpose was to share documents and files. Sharepoint has evolved of the past few years to become a very robust platform. So robust that having administration experience over Sharepoint looks great on a resume. There are a few primary uses that Sharepoint can serve for your environment out of the box. For example I’ve found use for it immediately as a Document Library, Search Server, Shared Calendar with Outlook 2007 integration, also I use it as Task Manager. The Outlook 2007 integration works so well. These are features that can be immediately implemented into most small business I.T. environments. Sharepoint stores all files in a SQL Database, the Sharepoint files are not stored on file server… The faster the SQL server, the faster the user experience will be. In my production environment my WSS_Content database is running off of a virtual SQL server.  Virtualizing a SQL server isn’t the best idea unless you’ve got some nice hardware, which I do… Both the SQL Server and the actual host for WSS 3.0 are running on two different Windows Server 2003 machines which are both virtual.  Each virtual machine is sharing the same physical RAID 1 which runs on a 146GB SAS. I’ve had no problems with slow I/Os. Please keep in mind that I have about 40 users and maybe one to three will be actually using Sharepoint at a given time. Based on the performance I get right now, I can support 4 to 5 times more traffic, thus I’ve got some room for growth. With around 2,000 documents in my Sharepoint Document Library, my WSS_Content database is just under 1GB in size.

You will want to take advantage of some add-ins for Sharepoint such as Web Parts (.wsp) & Site Templates & Definitions (.stp). For example on your Sharepoint main page you could use the Links web part to create a “hot links” section for the most commonly used documents. This way your users will not have to dig for a document they use all of the time.

If you decide to use the Calendar with in Sharepoint, then you’ll want to do two things. 1. Integrate it with the users who use Outlook 2007. 2. Show a Shared Calendar summary on the Sharepoint main page.

WSS 3.0 can be customized via Sharepoint Designer 2007, which is also free.

Prerequisites- Windows Server 2003 or better
Microsoft suggests the following…
Dual processors that are each 3 GHz or faster

2 GB of RAM

Please visit the blog “Site Collection Logical Architecture” to get a grasp on the logical layout of Sharepoint. The author dwollerman has a few great points. I personally found Sharepoint frustrating until I saw the Logical Architecture drawing he made.

Logical Architechture

 http://www.sharepointblogs.com/llowevad/archive/2007/06/25/site-collection-logical-architecture.aspx

You’ve probably noticed Windows SharePoint Services as an install options under the Windows Server 2003 – Windows Components Wizard.

Do not install via this method, unless you want to install the updates one by one…

The quickest way to implement WSS 3.0 is to download Windows Search Server 2008 Express, which is also free. It actually runs on top of WSS 3.0. You’ll want to install Windows Search Server 2008 if you want to be able to search Sharepoint. You can also index and search file servers and websites. It would be ideal to make sure your Sharepoint site and your Search site are on two different Content Databases (SQL databases)…You can find the download for Windows Search Server 2008 Express at the following url…
http://www.microsoft.com/enterprisesearch/en/us/search-server-express.aspx

Once Sharepoint is installed you’ll want to download and install an add-on from Microsoft, “Application Templates for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0”. This will add the Application Templates tab and provide more site templates to choose from.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/sharepoint/bb407286.aspx